Sports

The women’s golf team kicked off their spring season in Boulder City, Nevada earlier this month. The Hawks competed in The Battle at Boulder Creek at Boulder Creek Golf Course on March 5th and 6th for the second consecutive year. The golf course was played at 6,252 yards with a par of 72. The tournament was a 54 hole event, with 36 holes played during round one and 18 holes played during round two. The field consisted of 12 teams, including Austin Peay State, Eastern Washington, Georgetown, Idaho State, Illinois-Chicago, James Madison, Monmouth, Montana State, Morehead State, Northern Kentucky, Oklahoma City, Radford.

The women finished the tournament with a score of 997 (339-332-326). Junior Haley Goodling posted her seventh round in the 70s of the season and 20th of her career. Goodling led the Hawks’ card for the fifth of her career. Senior Sarah Kokotajlo inked her third round in the 70s of the campaign, the 19th of her career.

“Being able to play and practice in warmer conditions was exactly what we needed to prepare us for the rest of the season,” said senior captain Faith Garcia. “This was our first time playing since the fall, so this tournament allowed us to figure out what we need to improve upon moving forward.”

Women’s lacrosse split their two away matchups over break. Beating the University of New Hampshire (UNH) 10-8 on Monday, March 12 and losing to Drexel 11-16 on Sunday, March 18. Monmouth now stands at an overall record of 2-7 and has completed their out of conference games.

The Hawks staged a daring second half comeback to pull out the road win against New Hampshire. Monmouth outscored the Wildcats 7-2 in the second half, including the final five to pull off the impressive comeback.

A sluggish and sloppy defensive effort in the first half left the Hawks nursing a 6-3 deficit. Monmouth let New Hampshire take a total of 23 shots in the first half while only mustering eight of their own. Junior goalkeeper Riley Brager stood tall in net as she made ten saves in the first half and 14 overall to keep her team in the game.

Monmouth circled the wagons in the second and showed a tremendous amount of grit to turn it around in the end. Junior attack Jenny Staines got it going in the second half for the Hawks. Staines was involved in two straight goals, scoring the first and assisting in the other to cut the deficit to 5-7 with 26 minutes left.

No scoring took place for nine minutes until The Wildcats responded with a goal of their own to reclaim a three-goal advantage. Five minutes later junior midfielder Logan Smet began the five-unanswered goal run with her first of two on the day.

With 6:27 left to play Staines buried a pass from sophomore attack Nicole Ceraso to tie it up at eight. Senior attack Alexa Smith than gave the Hawks the 9-8 lead with her team high third goal of the game with three minutes to play. Senior midfielder Claudia LaMarca capped off the exciting comeback off a Ceraso assist and who led the team with five points.

After Wednesday’s day game at Villanova was cancelled due to inclement weather and field conditions, 4-8 baseball traveled to Richmond, Virginia where they were swept in the Spider Invitational.

The packed three game weekend began on Friday morning where the Hawks were handed an 11-4 loss at the hands of the 2-9 Yale Bulldogs in a battle of struggling ball clubs looking to get back on the right track.

Monmouth did however get on the board first thanks to senior right fielder Pete Papcun who drove in sophomore left fielder John LaRocca. LaRocca was one of the few bright spots for Monmouth in the ballgame as he went 1-for-4 with a run scored and a run batted in (RBI) that gave them the lead in the third. Another bright spot was senior right-handed pitcher Ricky Dennis who took the bump for the Hawks and struck out a career-best seven batters in the defeat.

The story of the game was defensive struggles for Monmouth as Dennis threw six innings while allowing six runs only two of which were earned.

“Today was definitely a tale of two games,” Head Coach Dean Ehehalt said. “We didn’t do a very good job of collecting outs in the middle of the game and it definitely hurt us.”

All four of Monmouth’s unearned runs came in Dennis’ sixth and final inning of work where two errors turned the Hawk’s lead into a four-run deficit.

Following a three-game sweep at the hands of #11 Dallas Baptist to open the season, the Monmouth University baseball team collected its first two wins of the season during the Penn State Tournament this past weekend in Cary, NC.

Monmouth entered the Penn State Tournament this past weekend with a record of 0-3, facing games against #23 St. John’s, Penn State, and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). They would go on to pick up back-to-back wins against Penn State and UMBC to wrap up the three-game set.

Monmouth’s first win of the season came in a dramatic fashion in a back-and-forth affair with Penn State on Feb. 24. Heading in to the ninth inning, down 8-4 the Hawks rallied back to take a 9-8 lead. The comeback in the ninth started with a one-out single courtesy of junior catcher Clay Koniencki who came in to pinch hit. Junior outfielder Kyle Norman followed with a double and then senior infielder Shaine Hughes drove them both in with a double of his own. The rally was completed when junior catcher J.D. Andreessen hit his first home run as a Hawk and senior infielder Pete Papcun followed with another homer to give the blue and white the lead. The Hawks’ first win of the season was secured following a save in the bottom half of the ninth courtesy of sophomore right-handed pitcher Danny Long.

Penn State opened the scoring in the game by plating two in second on a single and an error. The Hawks answered with two runs of their own in the third thanks to a run batted in (RBI) ground out by Norman and an RBI double by Andreesen. The Nittany Lions would go back on top again with three runs in the fourth. The Hawks would answer in the sixth to trim the score to 5-4 on a Papcun RBI double but Penn State responded with three more runs to make it 8-4 before the Hawks mounted their comeback.

Men’s lacrosse bounced back from their heartbreaking double overtime season opener with a huge 17-4 victory on Wednesday at Wagner.

It was a come from behind effort for the Hawks to start the game as Wagner found the back of the net first striking within the first few minutes. Monmouth responded quickly however, as redshirt senior midfielder Dylan Schulte began a string of eight straight Hawk goals. Schulte and fellow senior Bryce Wasserman led the first half charge with two goals apiece helping lead Monmouth to a 9-2 advantage at the half.

Junior attack Hunter Jones got the second half scoring going as well with his early transition goal assisted by Wasserman. From here it was more of the same from the Hawks who continued the offensive outpour scoring seven more times while only allowing four goals in the game.

“Today was a really good day for our guys,” Monmouth Head Coach Brian Fisher said. “We handled the adjustments really well on a short week and that showed today.”

The defensive effort was certainly on display in addition as Monmouth senior defender Joe Lucas made his first-career start on defense and his help was surely noticed.

One of Monmouth’s eight second half goals came from none other than Schulte who completed his second career hat trick.

Several young Hawks made their debuts in the game including freshman attack Max Brooks who ended the day’s scoring with his first-career goal in the final minute of the game, capping off the victory. Brooks was one of nine players in the game who made their Monmouth debuts against Wagner.

Women’s lacrosse split their two matchups this past week, losing to George Mason 17-14 on Wednesday and defeating George Washington 14-8 on Saturday. With the win, Monmouth snaps their four-game losing streak and now stands at a 1-4 record overall.

Despite the 14-goal performance Monmouth failed to achieve a victory last Wednesday afternoon against George Mason. Both teams had their offensives firing on all cylinders as a total of 31 goals were scored between the two teams. George Mason jumped out to a three-goal advantage before the Hawks scored back-to-back unassisted goals to climb within one.

George Mason quickly responded with two more of their own to go up 5-2, but the Hawks would come within one thanks to senior attacker Alexa Smith who scored her first of the day off an assist from sophomore forward Nicole Ceraso. George Mason then would proceed to score the next five of seven goals to go into the half, up 10-6.

Monmouth’s senior midfielder Caroline Corbliss scored first in the second off an assist from junior midfielder Logan Smet to bring the Hawks within three. George Mason quickly put two more on the board to get back to a five-goal advantage with 24 minutes remaining. The Hawks scored seven goals over the remaining 24 minutes, including four in the final 15 but in the end came up short.

In the loss, the Hawks outshot their opponent to the tune of 39-35 and were positive in the turnover department. Also, junior goalie Riley Brager made ten saves to once again reach the double-digit mark.

After two tough losses in Buffalo, the Monmouth women’s basketball team bounced back with a 73-65 senior night victory over Fairfield at the OceanFirst Bank Center Friday night.

Senior guard Rhaiah Spooner-Knight scored 24 points in 23 minutes, while also grabbing eight rebounds. Junior guard McKinzee Barker was the only other Hawk in double figures scoring, as she had 12.

“Our belief in each other secured this win tonight,” Monmouth Head Coach Jody Craig said. “The communication defensively was tremendous, and it was one of our best efforts on that end of the floor.”

Fairfield jumped out to an eight-point advantage with 4:02 remaining in the first quarter, but Monmouth was able to cut that lead in half. At the end of ten minutes, the Stags led 18-14. A jumper from Barker with 6:34 left in the second quarter tied the game at 23. Fairfield responded with a 6-0 run, but Spooner-Knight scored four-straight points to counter the Stags’ run. Monmouth went into the halftime break down by one, 31-30.

The Hawks took the lead with 7:18 left in the third quarter off of an and-one conversion from Barker. As they two teams traded baskets, senior guard Dana Carbone hit her second three-point shot of the game with 2:18 in the quarter to give Monmouth a 47-46 lead. They would eventually take a 49-46 advantage into the fourth quarter.

The Hawks expanded their lead to five with 8:46 remaining in the game, but the Stags stormed back once again to take a one-point lead with just over six minutes left. Freshman forward Carol Arfinengo knocked down a three, and junior center Erica Balman converted on a layup to give Monmouth the lead back, as the score was 58-54 with just under five minutes remaining. The run would expand to 9-0, as their lead grew to 62-54 with 4:10 left. Fairfield used one final push to get the game to four points, but a huge three-point shot from sophomore guard Kayla Shaw gave Monmouth a seven-point lead with 46 seconds on the clock. They would not relinquish that lead, closing out Fairfield for their ninth victory of the season.

Men’s basketball defeated the Rider Broncs 91-77 on Senior Night on Thursday. The game was before falling to the Fairfield Stags 69-66 in the regular season finale on Saturday afternoon.

Junior guard Micah Seaborn started off the first half with 11 points while being a perfect 4-4 from the field and 3-3 from behind the arc. The junior would finish the half with 21 points, the most points scored in a half by a Hawk.

“I was feeling good in shootaround and then when I hit my first one I knew this was going to be a good night,” Seaborn said. “I’m just glad that we got it because I know I’ve never had someone lose on a Senior Night. I always try to make sure the people going out do whatever they can to go out on a good note, no matter how the year went. I just really focused on Austin [Tilghman] and Zac [Tillman] and Dan [Pillari], and of course our team but making sure they went out on the right note.”

“Tonight, on Senior Night, I wanted it for these kids so badly for these seniors,” Head Coach King Rice said.

In the first four minutes, the Hawks would be up 17-3 without a single missed shot going into the first media timeout. Monmouth would control the whole half, going into half time up 50-32. Seaborn was 8-9 from the field while also being 5-6 from three.

In the second half, their lead would be as high as 20 points with 10:37 left after a freshman guard Ray Salnave layup. The Broncs would bring it to within 12 with 5:17 left but the Hawks would finish the game, winning 91-77.

Seaborn finished with a career-high 30 points, his most since Dec. 2nd against UConn.

After bringing home two more Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Championship titles to add to the already decorated reputation that the Monmouth University track and field team has, the Hawks brought that same energy to the Fastrack Last Chance meet in Staten Island, N.Y. and Boston, MA this past Saturday and Sunday Feb. 24 & 25.

At the Boston University Last Chance meet, senior Allie Wilson shattered the school record for the 3000-meter-run with a time of 9:37.59, more than 15 seconds faster than the previous record held for this event. At the same meet, fifth year Dylan Capwell ran a 1:47.86 in the 800 meters. This time made Capwell the top collegian finisher in the 800-meter and will soon find out if his time is good enough to qualify for the National Colligate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championships. His time is currently the 13th best time in the country, and if he remains in the top 16 times in this event, he will go on to compete in the NCAA Championships.

Also in Boston, graduate student Chris Marco ran a 4:03.51 in the mile, which is the second best time in this event in school history. Freshman Amanda Dwyer finished second in the 1000 meters with a time of 2:56.09. Dwyer’s time was just .15 seconds below the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) qualifying time of 2:56.24.

The NYC Amory Last Chance meet, the Hawks kept up the momentum. Fifth year Tim Wilson won the weight throwing event with a mark of 66’7”. This mark is the second best in school history, which gives Wilson the top five marks in the event. Junior Ashley McKinnon won the long jump with an ECAC qualifying jump of 18’11” while teammate and junior Patrice Baston finished third with a mark of 18’4. Fifth year Casey Sturts and senior Megan Gambuti finished first and second in the pole vault event with marks of 12’6 and 11’6.75” and junior Dana Lynch won the 60-meter hurdles by finishing in 8.97 seconds. Senior Frank Conforti placed second in the 500 meters, crossing the finish line with a time of 1:07.44 and senior Corey Murphy finished second in the shot put with a throw of 17.69 meter, making him the top collegian for this event.